Life Lessons and Strange Pets

So today I learned not to trust the drugstore lady on her advice about mascara. Yesterday I went to the drugstore to and picked out some mascara. I was on my way to a rehearsal and didn't have much time, so I just glanced at the price before going to the check-out counter. When the price rang up one euro more than I had expected, I told her the price I thought it was. She went to check and showed me that I had picked out "waterproof" mascara which was, in fact, one euro more expensive than the "non-waterproof mascara".

Then she asked me if the mascara was for daily use and I said yes, to which she answered that waterproof mascara is not healthy for everyday use because it is too strong and should only be used when swimming. So I decided to take her advice, mostly because I wanted to save a euro, and purchased the non-waterproof mascara.

Well on the way to the subway this morning it was windy and my eyes watered, but since I have never used non-waterproof mascara, I didn't even think twice about it. So I certainly wasn't prepared for the shock I got when I went to the bathroom at the music school upon arrival. I gasped in shock at the huge, I mean, HUGE black smudge all under one eye. Think: baseball player black eye smudges (okay, maybe not that bad, but close).

As I wiped the mess off I had to wonder what the people in the subway, as well as music school elevator, must have thought of the terrible display as I chuckled to myself. For the rest of the day, however, I made sure to do a safety check every now and then to prevent a re-occurrence. Guess the euro saved wasn't really worth it... And the question is: is water-proof mascara really not meant for everyday use?

Once in awhile I mention something that has struck me as weird from my life in Berlin, because true to the description of this blog, there are really strange things that happen pretty much on a daily basis in the life of an expatriate. Now, the last thing that gave me the heebeegeebies was the rat on a leash that I saw a guy walking down the street from my apartment. Gross! But yesterday I saw something even worse.

As I was walking to the subway yesterday there was a punk in front of me with his dog. For Berlin and most of Germany this is nothing out of the ordinary. Punks are people who have chosen to live against the "societal norm" - not work, pay taxes, keep an apartment - and usually wear black, rocker clothes and have strange, multi-color, punky hair styles. They are all over but there are certain areas where they congregate to beg for money or just sit around drinking beer with their punk friends. It's also rare to see a punk without a dog.

But this punk didn't just have a dog for a pet. Upon closer look, I saw that this punk also had a big pet rat - on his shoulder! Though I purposely didn't look closely out of sheer fear, from what I could see it was pretty furry and had a long rat tail (literally) going partly down his back. It was also running back and forth from shoulder to shoulder! Eww!! I was SO shocked and horrified that I slowed my pace way down just so I didn't have to be anywhere near him. What I have to see in this city!

This has been a really hectic week for me. With my upcoming graduating recitals, one solo and one chamber music, there has been a lot of preparation, i.e. finding music in the library, making photo copies (of course at local shops since the music school doesn't have any copy machines for students), finding people to play in my ensembles, and finally practicing and rehearsing, the best part. But rehearsing aside, the biggest challenge lately has been signing up for the recitals.

Sounds easy enough - you sign a form confirming your upcoming graduation and graduating recitals - how hard could it be? But then you remember it's Germany, not America, and there's a catch to everything plus about 6 hours of paperwork for every seemingly easy task. And the funny thing is - and I say the word "funny" in a really so-annoyed-I-could-scream sort of ironic way - is that no one seems to really know what is expected until it's almost too late.

In this case, I thought I was on top of things. I picked out recital dates instead of waiting decades for my professor to finally do the task that is actually his responsibility. Then I signed up with our department secretary and thought everything was taken care of. That's until I heard that we can't do the recitals until we've registered with the Office of Matriculation and Examinations.

For me and every other foreigner or transfer student this means getting the classes recognized from our previous institutions. Although I already have a Bachelor's Degree, in order to grant me a degree from my music school in Berlin I need to either take all the music theory, history, instrumentation, etc. over again, or prove that I've had it all previously and have it recognized.

The process of getting the courses recognized has not been easy. Just looking at my transcripts to see the course title and grade wasn't enough. They have wanted course descriptions from the my university, proof from my professors at home about how often we met/were tested, and topics we covered.

So even though this has been something I've worked on in the past but never quite finished, now with the pressure of having it all taken care of for the recital registration, I have been running around getting everything taken care of and have all but one theory class recognized. They just need one more e-mail from a prof. at home and then I'll get the credit.

I also only have 2 out of 4 "sport" credits. Apparently (and again - no one ever explained this to us) we Master's students were supposed to take 2 sport classes and 2 breathing/movement classes in our 4 semesters. However I was under the impression that we just needed 2 total (and even asked my current sport teacher who confirmed it) and so just I took one sport class, "healthy back," and am taking my breathing/movement class this semester.

But as much as they seem to have such strict rules, sometimes they are also really easy to bend. The secretary told me that all I need is permission from my department that states I didn't need all 4 classes and then I'm fine. *sigh* What a lot of trouble for nothing! And it's good to know that I will, indeed, get the proper certification when I graduate for having all the course-work done/recognized.

The last thing I had been putting off was taking my piano examination. But since that was a grade also necessary for the registration, I had to make a last minute appointment Monday with the piano professor and took the exam 2 days later, on Wed. So for those 2 days early this week I slaved over the piano, practicing and wondering if I'd ever pass.

But when I got to the exam, I found that the professor was luckily very forgiving. I was doing okay until halfway through the 2nd piece everything kind of fell apart. After attempting to help me by playing the left-hand part, she just decided to give me the grade. That was a relief - and now I don't the piano exam lingering in the back of my mind, yay!

And to top it all off, I barely slept Tues. night because the drunken neighbor's son was back screaming in the middle of the night. After calling the police, waiting a half hour for them to come, finally calling them back tell them the neighbor had gone to sleep and they shouldn't come anymore....I couldn't fall back asleep and lay awake for hours in bed. The next day was of course my busiest with rehearsals, appointments, piano exam, work, and so it certainly put me in an even worse mood. But tomorrow I have a hair appointment - new highlights and a trim - so that'll be the end-of-a-busy-week perk!